“I spend hours do­ing up my house”

IIN MUM­BAI, THE CLEANER YOU KEEP YOUR WALLS, THE MORE SPACE THEY GIVE TO YOUR ROOMS.

love any­thing that is an­tique or vin­tage. In terms of dec­o­rat­ing my place, I found most of my stuff in an­tique mar­kets like Jo­gesh­wari. I am also a huge fan of re­fur­bish­ing old pieces. I usu­ally buy them, bring them home and then in my time I sit and work on them. I find it ther­a­peu­tic.

In­stead of sleep­ing af­ter a hec­tic shoot, I spend hours just do­ing up my house; I find it very re­lax­ing. I bought a chair from Jo­gesh­wari mar­ket and a foot stool to go with it. I sanded it down, painted it and got a lime green for the cush­ion.

I love how you can find unique pieces in Jo­gesh­wari mar­ket and your home doesn’t look like it is out of a cat­a­logue. I found a lit­tle bed­side ta­ble there or just Rs 1,000! I per­son­alised it by paint­ing it in gold and white colours.

I like to col­lect vin­tage things. I did a show called Style in the City that took us all over In­dia and I picked up pieces along the way — beau­ti­ful door han­dles from Pushkar, hand painted cush­ions from Kis­hangarh Art Gallery in Jaipur and an­tique boxes from Lucknow. I am not a huge fan of con­tem­po­rary de­sign. I like it more if it is mixed with vin­tage things. Just like in fash­ion, I like to mix vin­tage with mod­ern.

Usu­ally in Mum­bai, the cleaner you keep the walls, the more spa­cious your house looks. The minute you paint the walls a dark colour, the room ap­pears smaller. I’ve kept my walls plain, but I go crazy in my kitchen. I painted my kitchen walls and cab­i­nets turquoise to give it a more funky feel. I am also not much of a hoarder and that keeps things sen­si­ble in terms of space. For me, fur­ni­ture is best if kept at a min­i­mum. I re­ally like black and white framed pic­tures though—can­did pic­tures of my sis­ters, friends from Aus­tralia and my par­ents. I also have a lot of vin­tage posters of Char­lie Chap­lin, Mar­i­lyn Mon­roe.